The best laid plans...

Leave it to the English teacher to reference Of Mice and Men in the title. Perhaps you'll like this saying better: "Life's what happens when you are busy making other plans".

Our plan? Wait just a few more months to really start trying to have a baby.

Life's (God's) plan? Have a baby now.

Yep, I'm pregnant!!

Wow, it's still a little strange to even type that and realize that it's about me.

While I've been on an emotional overload during the past 24 hours, I'll tell this story the best that I remember it.

So I can't be 100% shocked that I'm pregnant. We weren't using any form of birth control, after all. I have been on the pill regularly for several years and stopped taking it at the end of January. I had one period in February and I guess I had no reason to worry that Justin and I would have trouble having children because here we are! Yes, ladies and gentlemen and teenagers of all ages, it does just take one time without using a form of birth control to get pregnant.

Let's back up a bit. On Saturday, March 20th, I went to my friend Ashley's house to visit her and her new baby girl. Two of my other girlfriends, Jess and Allison, were there as well. They knew that I was off the pill and asked if there was a chance that I might be pregnant. Well, there was but I didn't think anything of it. Being girls, we bought pregnancy tests (at the Dollar Tree, mind you, since those apparently detect the lowest amount of HCG) and I took one that night. It was negative, just as I had thought. I went about my normal, everyday, non-pregnant life.

I was supposed to be on my period that next week, but (sparing you the details) it barely came. I had some symptoms of it, but nothing really happened. Fast forward to yesterday, March 30th.

Justin was in Muncie visiting his brother and I was ironing. I started to feel cramps like I would normally feel around around Aunt Flo time and had been feeling these cramps for several days in a row. I, being a self-proclaimed doctor perfectly capable of self-diagnosing myself via Google, sat down at the computer and looked up everything that I could possibly have that would cause such cramps. Remembering that I still had two Dollar Tree pregnancy tests hidden in the guest room, I thought I would definitely rule it out (again, I thought) so I took the test. I sat it on the counter and kept one eye on it while I washed my hands and was perfectly prepared for one line to show up.

I wasn't prepared for two lines to show up.


But there they were. So I did what any normal woman does. I freaked out. I believe I ran away from the test that was sitting on the counter saying "Oh my God" over and over and over again. I didn't know what to do. I always pictured how I would feel when I found out that I was pregnant and my reaction definitely wasn't the one I had pictured. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't unhappy, just....shocked.

My next thought? I have to talk to someone. Knowing that Justin was driving home from Muncie, I didn't want to call him. I needed to talk to someone that had been through this before, someone that knew I could call and have a calm, rational conversation with. I didn't want to call a family member (remember my knowledge of maybe being pregnant was all of two minutes at this point so I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up) so I called my friend Ashley. Poor thing didn't know what she was in for. When she picked up, my second freak out began.

I rambled for what seemed like a long time about how I hadn't been feeling well and took the pregnancy test and that it was positive and that Justin wasn't there and I didn't know what to do next, etc. Thank goodness she was calm. She asked me if there was any chance that there wasn't a second line. Um, no. It was staring me in the face. She then told me that I should probably go out and get a name-brand pregnancy test (sorry Dollar Tree) and take that and if that was positive then tell Justin when he got home and then call the doctor the next day. She successfully calmed me down and I ran to get dressed. I really wanted to take that second test before Justin got home so I could be 100% sure before I said anything. One problem. He had my car.

I got dressed and then drank two glasses of water in about five minutes to take the last Dollar Tree test that I had since I didn't have my car to go to get another kind. Surely two tests wouldn't lie, and they didn't. Test number two was just as positive as test number one.


So now all I had to do was tell Justin. Again, I had always dreamed of telling him in some cute way that included some kind of cuddly baby gift, a nice dinner, and a big hug. Wrong. He walked in the door and I made small talk in some high-pitched voice that I don't know that I'd ever heard come out of my mouth before. Then I got down to it. Here's basically how it went:

Me: "I need to talk to you about something."

Justin: "What?" (getting angry or very curious...I couldn't tell which)

Me: "But you can't freak out because I'm already freaking out enough for the both of us."

Justin: "What is it?"

Me: "Sit down."

He sat down.

Me: "I think I'm pregnant."

Justin: "No way."

The rest of the conversation is a blur. It's kind of like when you get engaged and as the girl you think you are going to remember absolutely everything that the guy says when he is down on one knee and then when you finally get the ring on your finger you can't remember a thing. I do remember feeling like it was the most awkward conversation we had ever had.

I showed him the two tests that were still on the counter and told him that I needed to run to CVS to get a "real" test to find out for sure. Since we were supposed to be leaving in 20 minutes to meet my sister and her boyfriend for dinner, he stayed at the apartment to change and get ready and I went to CVS.

I came home, drank some more water, waited a little bit, and took the next test. Positive again.


Then all we had to do was let the news settle in. Easier said than done. There isn't one moment in my life where so many thoughts have run through my head at one time. Here are a few: Oh my God. I'm pregnant. I'm going to have a baby. Oh, great. My baby has had nothing but diet coke, chicken nuggets, and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the first few weeks of its life. And I drank wine. Twice. And I scooped the cat litter. And I took ibuprofen.

Amazingly, Justin was the epitome of calmness and helped me down from the "freaking out" stage to the "maybe I can handle this" stage.

And here we are. After taking one more pregnancy test this morning for good measure (it was positive), I called a doctor (Ashley's doctor) and I have an appointment on April 9th to get blood work done and an appointment on May 6th to meet the doctor and have our first ultrasound. I'll be very happy after that first appointment to have just a little reassurance that everything is fine. The internet has been a curse and a blessing to me in the past 24 hours as I've Googled every little thing I can think of and been more scared and worried in this short amount of time than I have ever been in my life.

So while the plan was to wait a few more months, save a little more money, be a little more healthy, and feel a little more prepared, God had other plans in mind. And we are OK with that.

We are ready for the adventure!

Unorganized Update

Warning: This could be a lot of long-winded rambling. But you'll have that since I haven't updated in so long.

In short, Justin and I are doing well. I am currently on spring break and perhaps you were wondering what that big gust of wind was last Friday at 2:50 p.m. It was me, letting out a big sigh of relief that I have a week away from school. I started out the week really relaxing and enjoying my time at home, but I quickly became bored and looked for things to do around the house. I'll be typing my post about the wonders of closet organization here soon. Stay tuned.

While I'm always ready for a break, I guess I can't make it seem like this semester has been too bad. In my first year of teaching, I was always just trying to keep my head above water. During my second year I felt that my head was above water, but still bobbed under the surface from time to time. This year, my third year, and especially the second semester of my third year, I really feel like I'm treading the water comfortably and successfully. I'm teaching classes that I've taught multiple times before and it's the first semester that I haven't had to worry about a lesson plan for the next day since I'm already planned. That's not to say that I'm not busy because the grading pile of a high school English teacher is never small, but it's bearable.

Basketball season came to a bittersweet end. The team this year was phenomenal and one of the best in the history of the school. They finished their season at 22-3 and #3 in class 3A. We lost in the regional championship game. If I didn't have to go to every game, I would have went anyway. They were very exciting to watch, especially the seniors and two of them are already signed to Division I schools. Now we are into the short break that a cheerleading season has, consisting of about a month or so. We will have our end of the year banquet soon and go right into tryouts for next year. It's crazy and pays very little, but I wouldn't give it up.

On an extremely happy note, my friend Ashley and her husband Luke welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Noelle, into the world on March 11. I was actually in the waiting room when she was born with two great friends and the anxious grandparents. I'm never been that involved in a birth before (ok, I know I wasn't holding Ashley's foot during pushing or anything) but it was exciting to be right there when Noelle was born and see her just a couple of hours later! She is gorgeous and perfect and it's exciting for Ashley to become the awesome mom that she has dreamed of being for so long.

Break is half way over today and it seems like it's gone slow, which is nice. I'm going to see Ashley and Noelle tomorrow and then going to Fort Wayne to visit my Dad and Lea on Friday for the weekend.

For now Justin and I are going to go enjoy the awesome weather we are having and take a walk!

Ouch

Ugh, I'm in pain.

It hurts.

I worked out yesterday.

For the first in, well, let's just say a long time.

And I used muscles that I haven't used in well over a year.

I used muscles that I'm not sure I even knew existed in my body.

But I felt good for doing it.

But then I experienced more pain this morning.

No, not the good soreness that you feel the morning after a good workout.

The kind of pain you experience when you are walking in a very slick and snow-covered parking lot, go to step on the sidewalk, and do a cartoon-feet-flying-out-from-under-you fall right onto your entire left side.

It hurt.

I didn't even have a millisecond for my mind to register the fact that I was falling. I was up one millisecond and down the next.

I scrambled to get up since I had landed in a pile of snow that was the aftermath of the snow plow going through the parking lot.

I pushed myself to my feet and briefly looked around to see if anyone saw me.

No one did.

I think.

My next thought was panic as I looked to see if my white winter coat was dirty.

It wasn't.

I then proceeded to walk to the door with my ego bruised, brushing snow off myself from my left shoulder down to my left knee.

Needless to say, the combination of the two has left me in some pain.

But like they say, no pain, no gain.

But I think I'll wear more sensible shoes in the snow from now on.

Happy Birthday to...ME!

Today I turn the big 2-6. In honor of my birthday, Mt. Vernon closed school for the second day in a row. OK...maybe the snow had something to do with it. Nonetheless, I've had an awesome two days off with Justin since his regular days off are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

I've spend my unexpected days off working on school stuff, so nothing fancy. But sometimes I think teachers enjoy a snow day just as much as the kids do. I was reassured of this as myself and two other teachers poured over the radar on Monday during SRT (student resource time) to see just exactly when the snow would hit so we knew the likelihood of a snow day yesterday. I would have been OK with just that one, but they threw in another one today, and well, I'm not complaining.

However, I do hope to go to school tomorrow without even a delay. We have a speaker coming in the afternoon that I do not want to miss. His name is Sam Childers and the work he has done to help African children that have been affected by the war in northern Uganda and southern Sudan is extremely commendable. I am currently reading his book and you can find more information about his mission and organization here and here. I taught a class this past quarter that included reading the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah about his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. It's hard to imagine that children are still going through experiences like this in 2010.

On a much, much lighter note (and what seems somewhat trivial after writing the last paragraph) Justin has made this birthday fun even though we haven't been anywhere since we didn't want to brave the weather. In fact, he just got done making me the best birthday cake...Funfetti, of course!


And later he is making my favorite dinner of cubed steak with mushroom gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, and white corn. Good for you? No. But delicious and completely acceptable to eat on your birthday? Yes.

Well, back to working on things for school.

Paw Prints

Someone went out into the snow for the first time today.

She's seen snow from the window, but she's never been in it.

She didn't go far. I think it was too cold for her paws.

And now she's back to her usual Saturday afternoon activity: napping.

Another successful adventure for Maggie.

Back to Reality

Ugh...work. Ugh...school. Ugh...responsibility. OK, just kidding. Well, sort of. I go back to school tomorrow after two wonderful weeks off. I can honestly say that I don't think that this break went by too fast. I feel like I had a lot of time to see family and friends as well as get some much-needed rest and relaxation. I will be sad to see it go but it must come to an end.

I started on my organization mission today. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped since I stopped in the afternoon to get things ready for school tomorrow. The paper sorting/file making is coming along nicely, though.

And speaking of going back to work, a bit of a funny story to share. Justin doesn't love to hear me say that I don't want to go back to work since I just had two weeks off and he barely gets a vacation each year, but I do it anyway and he groans every time. So we are watching the weather tonight and see that "they" are calling for a snowstorm on Thursday and the weatherman says "I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of school delays and closings on Thursday and Friday." I kind of laugh and say, "Yeah, after a full day tomorrow, it might be nice to have a break." Justin didn't find it amusing. Oh well!

Mission Organization

With a new year usually comes a time when I freak out and realize that I'm not exactly as organized as I'd like to be. I know, you are shocked. I think I seem put together on the outside but there are some aspects of my life that could use a lot more organization. I was reminded of that this evening when I had a small panic attack when I couldn't find our marriage license. Did I need our marriage license for any specific purpose? No. For some reason it just came to mind that if someone came up to me right now and asked me to present our official marriage license that I would have no idea where to look. Well, I wouldn't have known about 20 minutes ago. But I know now.

So I decided to tackle some piles of stuff in our guest room that have been growing lately. I started sorting through a lot of it and not only found papers (like the marriage license) that need a proper home in a file folder but found several office supplies that we aren't using. Me not use the wonderful, shiny, new office supplies? Crazy. I have a small obsession with all things that live in Staples, and I've been known to go in there for a mechanical pencil and come out with $50 worth of items.

Tomorrow marks my last day of winter break freedom and the first day that I start getting more organized around the house. Tomorrow you can find me curled up with a big stack of unorganized papers, new file folders, and the label maker!